A Happiness month in class!

July 9, 2014

This post is inspired by the Happiness game I’ve been taking part in for the past 4 days as well as Malu Sciamarelli’s Kindness project. I love the idea of celebrating everyday happiness and I feel that it is important to show our students how they can become more appreciative of the things they already have in life.
We could start a happiness chain very simply by just devoting 10′-15′ of our class time every week, asking our students to mention 2 things that made them happy that week. Then, we can gradually build a set of questions/activities for them to do throughout the whole month, that is create in a way a calendar of happiness-related activities for the classroom.
Apart from making students-as well as ourselves-more aware of those moments of happiness in our everyday lives, the calendar can be modified according to our teaching needs so that we can also practise the language we’re teaching at the time.
Since we usually meet our students twice a week, you can start with 8 acts as a minimum and then depending on your students’ reaction, “enrich” your calendar as time goes by.
A sample calendar could look like that:

Week 1
1) Write down 5-7 words that come instantly in your mind when you hear the word “happiness”.
2) Talk about 2 things that made you happy this week.Week 2
1) Talk about 1 thing you did this week which made someone else happy or about 1 person that makes you happy all the time.
2) Write an acrostic poem using the word happy.Week 3
1) Talk about 3 songs that lift you up and make you feel happy.
2) What do you imagine will make you feel happy 1 month from now ?Week 4
1) Write about 2 people/things/activities that made you happy in the past. What’s different now?
2) Write a short letter to your future self . Think of 3 things you should do to be happy.